Heroes Aren't Always Super
by 1. MMBOj
Summary: For fun, what do ordinary normal people heroes do when not saving natural humans? What do extraordinary abnormal superhuman superheroes do when not beating supernatural demons? Superpowers are awesome. But powers can't beat magic. And both power and magic are useless in the cyber world... "Chosen" is my nickname for Licenseless Rider. . Chapter Four- Saitama!
1. A Hero Forgotten

**One-Punch Man is a Japanese action, Superhero, parody manga created by a manga artist called "ONE" ...I'm a sad one because this one is not ONE. Gah.**

 **Author's Note -** Yes. My sentences are a mess! But let me just leave it like this for now. I'll eventually get to it later. **xDxD**

* * *

 **...**

Prologue-ie upload

 **" So Whatever Happened to that One Hero?"**

 **...**

* * *

It had been another busy day. It was a little after 10 o'clock at night when Mumen Rider, the C-Class Rank 1 Hero, decided to end his patrol.

From sunrise to sunset, rain or shine, daylight hours were busy times for him.

Whether if anyone actually needed saving or not, every morning he was out of the house before sunlight and wouldn't be back until hours after the sun disappeared.

No crime, big or small, a greater evil or a lesser evil, were to be overlooked. His activities during the day were mostly spent doing his C-class hero jobs: Stopping smaller crimes, righting all the wrongs that needed to be righted (because no matter how small the matter, wrong was still wrong), and-or helpfully fix the dilemmas of the citizens Mumen knew he could helpably help with.

Like, he once helped a kid with her homework.

Getting pets down from high trees was also a thang he did often for people. The biggest animal he had to help out of a tree was a grown brown bear.

Poor bear, it must have hecka hurt falling on a bony bike riding hero...

Oh. Yeah, yeah. Ahem. The poor bike riding hero, too.

In Z-City, most people were home and locking their doors before sunset, so rarely anyone - at least the ones out on the streets anyway - would need saving at night.

There was nothing he hated more than the thought of someone out there now, a victim of crime- going through an injustice, waiting for a moment they could safely (or riskily) call the police. He hated how someone almost always had to get hurt first before the police or hero got to them on time. When the police would reach them, most often the crime was already done, the victim now scarred. Physically and emotionally.

When nobody needed help with anything or had no need of being saved, he was reporting stuff like cars parking in a "No Parking" area. He was also stopping vandalism or fixing some of the damage himself if he was able to. Like washing off or painting over graffiti. Usually around 10:00pm, he was picking up trash he would find on the ground around the neighborhood.

Etcetera.

Etcetera.

If he had X-ray Vision and Super Hearing and Empathy and maybe teleporting powers, ah, License-less Rider would no doubt not step foot to the direction of his home- Not until he was exhausted and did all that he was physically able to.

He would be able to feel when an innocent was feeling terrified, trapped, or hurt. He could save people being attacked in their own homes. If he had Super Hearing, he could save those that were kidnapped and locked some place, calling for help. He would prevent accidents if he could. This Hero would call 911 for the ones injured. Like one who was maybe having a heart attack because no one was around to call the ambulance for them.

E T C.

 **...**

Standing in front of his house, the most popular C-Class Hero of The Hero Association was suddenly hit with a deep gut instinct of something dark, danger, and doom coming. Just a something. Whatever that something was. He felt it was something that was about to happen.

Or maybe it was a something that was already there?

Something.

And it didn't help that the gut feeling might have been a smidge too deep and out of the blue, because the C Class top ranking crime stopper didn't think much of the hunch and pretty much downright ignored the feeling- Well. He hadn't meant to ignore the notion. The man's thinky noodle was a little slow. His being hadn't comprehend yet the "something" he was feeling.

Maybe if only the dude had actually paused for a moment when the sudden funny sense struck and had not opened the door right away.

If only he hadn't gone home so soon.

Maybe if he had turned tail when he instinctively felt the "something" wrong.

Maybe be anywhere but home that night.

If only the guy from the Superhero Society had stopped and let his head caught up with the ill-boding and done-for sneaking suspicion in his bones..

...then the hard luck that happened to him wouldn't have happened to him. Or no, what happened to him was unavoidable. But it probably could have at least been delayed, the inevitable made just a teeny bit more evitablerer if he hadn't made light of the ominous feels he was feeling at the moment.

If only it wasn't Community Clean Up Day.

The single main reason he was even home at 10 and not out starting his trash throwing was because earlier that day was when people got together and started helping each other clear up the garbage they see on sidewalks, lawns, parking lots, and parks..

Everything happened so fast.

The first thing License-less Rider saw as soon as he opened the door to his place was his rice cooker flying right at him from the other side of the little hallway.

That was also the last thing he saw before pain exploded in his face and everything went black.

 **...**

Four months later and the first ranker of C Class heroes was now utterly forgotten. Everyone had moved on from guessing what had happened to him.

During that time he was gone, people who knew and were fans of the bicyclist hero were worried, wondering where he was. His home was found completely emptied out and there was no word of where he was or what happened to make him abandon his old place.

While some thought the hardworking Hero of Justice was (finally) getting his long deserved long vacation break, others a bit more gossipic minded seemed to have the wrong idea that he simply got tired of being a Hero and decided to move away.

Those people were wrong. His fans were very sure of it. No way would he stop being a Hero.

He would always, forever be a Hero. Even when he knows there was no chance of him winning a fight, he would risk his life for innocents.

No questions and without hesitation.

But just because he had fans who strongly supported him and never once stopped believing in him, doesn't mean he was the only Hero they would talk about all the time.

Those people had other Superheroes they were fans of. Stronger, upper class, higher ranking Heroes with a bigger fan base, too.

People talked about them.

The longer he was gone meant the longer more crime and chaos happened with him not around to help save the day. And with him not around, his name wouldn't be coming out of people's lips when they would be having their daily conversations about news and recent disaster events.

When not busy worrying about their own everyday life problems, people were worrying about their safety and their lives that those events could have ruined.

As the number of days of his disappearance kept adding up, a couple of the top C Class heroes were able to finally move up in rank. The two, who were second and third ranked, have even moved up to the lowest ranks in B Class.

People talked about them.

Who really knew what's up with the top rankers of each Class? Because like level A and B's number one rankers, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask and Miss Blizzard of Hell, License-less Rider refused to leave his spot as the First, preventing any other Hero ranking below him from ever reaching the top, letting them have the choice and chance to advance to the next Class.

Only the Caped Baldy was able to do that when he saved License-less Rider and the people of J City from the Sea King. Other than that, no one else had been able to surpass Rider in rank, proving how determined and passionate and great Rider was at this Hero business after all. Since he _w **a** s_ only an ordinary dude with no special powers.

But people eventually stopped talking about him. He'd been gone for months.

Every week, more and more men and women became registered Heroes in the National Super Hero Registry.

People talked about them.

Everyday, there were demons crawling out of whatever, wherever it was they crawled out of.

People thought about those.

With all these things going on, even his fans had no room to keep him in their thoughts.

 **...**

Four months later, he was, eh, not-so-back to a world he was so not remembered.

* * *

 **...**

 **Not sure how the next chapter will go.**

 **Hope you'll continue to keep reading this and like it.**

 **Thank You a whole lot of bunches for reading!**

 **...**

 **1\. Guess where do you think this bike-riding Hero has been?**

 **2\. Who should I talk about in the next chapter?**

 **[x]** Saitama **?**

 **[x]** Bang **?**

 **[x]** License-less Rider again?

 **[x]** Fubuki **?**

 **[x]** King **?**

 **[x]** Tatsumaki **?**

 **[x] an** Original Character **?**

 **[x] a** Superhero character from another fandom **?**

 **Please, let me know in a review, please!**


	2. Chosen

**_Saturday . March 19, 2016_**

(HALF an Upload)

You have been warned! **ToT** This is not a Tatsumaki chapter. The next one will be.

 **Dissing a Claim - I don't own the characters. Chosen was just a nickname I've chosen for Licenseless Rider. The characters mentioned belong to the maker of "One-Punch Man."**

* * *

 **Author's Note** – I decided to add this short update. It's connected to my next chapter which is mostly TATSUMAKI. **xDxD** Thanks much to the (only) two readers who both dropped Tornado of Terror's name in the review box. It made choosing which character to write for next a lot easier. **n3n** But I promise ( _ **maybe probably hopefully**_ ) tomorrow I'll have the next chapter up!

* * *

 **...**

Chapter ZERO point FIVE

" **Silver Fang's New Chosen Student** "

 **...**

* * *

9:36 AM.

The 25-year-old dude smacked a hand to his forehead, rubbing his sweaty skin and eyes there in frustration. Bringing his other hand to his dark brown hair, he combed, messed up, and pulled at it, not sure what to do with it while the hand on his forehead ran down his face, brushing pass the goggles he had on, down his nose and cheeks, down his lips, chin, and neck before stopping at his chest. He rubbed his chest.

Mumen was out of breathe, he could feel his pulse booming in his ears. And where was that ringing coming from?

Yeah, that sound was going to get real tiresome.

"Young man, are you alright?"

Mumen jumped. He opened his eyes. There were two figures before him. Figures with many age lines on their faces. Old men. One had a bald top head with straight long hair on the bottom half of his head, a long straight beard reaching his chest. The other person had a full head of spiky hair and a mustache. Both have the same thick eyebrows.

Munen Rider didn't recognize them.

He knew he heard that voice before.. But what the hey, he really could not make out who these men were.

And so it seemed another thing was just added to the list of things that irked him that day. Ha.

Oh, any other time, he wouldn't have gotten irked-ed like this. That day was just the day his sensitivity to irksomeness made a decision to act up.

So. It. Seemed.

"Looks to me like you are having trouble breathing," the other old man with the long beard spoke up.

Nodding, the winded dude explained, "Yeah. I was just running, actually."

"You take care. Don't over work your body," advised the elderly who asked him if he was okay. He was the mustached grandpa. "You're looking a little pale."

The bearded gramps nodded. "Maybe a little more sun would bring more color to those cheeks." The wrinkle faced man gestured toward the breathless, smooth face guy's goggles. "Nice goggles, by the way." He looked around the street. "You must be far from home. People don't normally wonder in this part of the neighborhood in Z City."

The old man with the spiked hair added, "It's dangerous here for civilians. Monsters and demons still sometimes lurk here even during the day."

"What about you two?" Right after shooting that question without thinking, for a moment, a mental image flashed in his mind of how these two were really monsters disguised as old men. His eyes widened behind his goggles. Followed by a sharp coldness running down his spine, it almost hurt. He couldn't tell if this was instincts. Or if this was just another one of his irrational fears. He hoped it was the latter.

He super hoped it was very much the latter.

Bang and Bomb chuckled.

After not saying anything for a few moments, it felt like forever to Mumen. Why were they laughing? Was he right about them? Gah! Please just let this all be an irrational fear.

Please.

Let it be!

Bang cleared his throat, the amused grin reaching his eyes. "I'm sorry." He glanced at his older brother then back at the man who didn't seem to know who they were. "I'm just a little surprised you don't recognize us. Please excuse me for sounding like I have a big head, but I thought I was famous." Lightly scratching his chin with a finger, Bang sighed with a humm sound.

Mumen let out a breath. Oh, thank goodness they weren't monsters. He laughed sheepishly. "I apologize," he bowed to each of them in apology. "I'm sure I would know you if you were to tell me your names." Rocking on his heels, he shrugged and told them he was blind. He tapped the sides of his goggles with both of his pointer fingers, his voice lowering and his spoken words slowing as if not sure he should be telling them, "These goggles allow me.. to see outlines of... surrounding people and things. ."

The unsureness in his voice made him sound like he was a record disc and he was being slowed down. He was unsure of why he was unsure of telling them. Because why not would he tell? It wasn't a big deal to tell them. What was wrong with him?

"I see. Very interesting." Bang nodded. "Well, I am Bang. And this here," he gestured toward his sibling, "Is my big brother, Bomb."

Eyebrows raised, Mumen pointed to Bang. "S Class, Rank 3, Silver Fang, Bang?"

"The one and only."

Mumen Rider laughed. "Cool!" He gestured toward them both. "Nice to meet you two. I use to be a hero. The top ranker of Class C, the bicyclist hero."

"So news of you quitting the hero life were true," said Bang. More questioningly than an actual statement.

Bomb commented, "Rumor has it you were on a long vacation."

"Both are rumors." The Rider guy cleared his throat. "I was kidnapped."

"We're very sorry to hear. How unfortunate."

"They were interesting people. They finally let me go. Almost two weeks ago now." Mumen started rolling his ankles. He did other stretches that stretched his calves, quadriceps, and hamstrings. "I lost all my endurance and some of my strength these four months." Stretching his arms and neck, he sighed. "I'm working on building them up again."

"How long did you run this morning? You seemed pretty out of breath there."

"Uh.. I practically just stepped out of my front door." The young dude sweatdropped. "I jogged for less than three minutes. I live close by." He pointed with a thumb to somewhere behind him. Seeing the outline of a pitying look on Bang's face as the old man shook his head at his words, Rider looked down at his feet, feeling worse about himself.

Bomb crossed his arms, a thumb and pointer finger stroking his bearded chin. "If you'd like," he started.

Bang brought his hands behind his back and held it there. He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders.

Bomb continued, "My brother here is looking for new students to join his dojo."

Bang offered, "If you are interested.."

Beaming, Mumen Rider gave Silver Fang two thumbs up, head moving up and down frantically. "Yeah, sure!"

Bang's eyes widen. Finally, after so long, someone openly and readily accepting his offer to join his dojo. "Perfect," smiled Bang.

"Do you have a flyer or maybe a card on you," questioned Mumen. He bounced a little. "Wow. Silver Fang as my master..."

That gave Bang an idea. "I haven't thought of making a flyer. I think I'll start on that today. I'm not doing anything." Bang shrugged.

Miss Blizzard, an esper superhero from Class B, texted Silver Fang the night before. She wanted him and the rest of, quote, Saitama's group, unquote, to meet her group for another random challenge at noon today. It was going to be another competition where the losing team does whatever the winning team wanted.

If Saitama's team, consisting of B-Class Saitama, S-Class Genos, S-Class King, and Bang himself, come out the victors once again in the next few hours, Bang would give the Blizzard of Hell Group the choice of either joining his dojo, or helping him make some flyers to hand out to people.

Yep.

Today was looking up. Bang was going to make sure Saitama's group wins.

"Be at Z Park at around 4:30. I'll be handing out flyers there."

"Sounds like a plan. See you then!"

They go their separate ways.

About a block away later, Bomb realized two somethings. He watched his younger sibling in the corner of his eye, putting a calm hand on his little brother's head. "Bangie, we forgot to ask him his name."

Bang didn't say anything. He'll ask the young man when, if, he shows up at the park.

"Also, we failed to mention that he had to climb the five mile long steps to your dojo within a certain time and with energy left to spare to train for a couple hours before safely climbing back down the steps."

Bang signed.

With goggle guy's current level of endurance, it would take him three months of endurance training to get to the level Bang wants him in before he started training him. Even his one current student, the weakest he had to teach and the slowest one he ever taught was still way ahead of sir goggle dude.

But Bang won't allow these things to completely dampen his mood.

Plus, there were still some things to look forward to.

Mister goggle man wasn't a loss student, only a delayed one. And sure, there was no guarantee Saitama's team will come out the victor that day. But there was still a fifty percent chance Saitama's group will win today's challenge. There was a chance that a B Class member of the Blizzards will, at least, think about joining, and was already at the level to be trained.

And if none of the Blizzard lackeys wanted to join, Bang will have them help him look for new students who were as interested in joining as the kidnapped victim.

* * *

 **...**

 **Thank You to all reading and following this!**

 **I hope I wasted your time in a somehow, somewhat good way somewhere!**

 **If not, I'm sorry! So, so sorry!**

 **...**


	3. Answer: Fall in Love

_**Friday . March 25, 2016**_

 **I don't own the characters mentioned in this chapter. They belong to the creator of "One-Punch Man."**

 **Author's Note** – Ever started a chapter and a few thousand words in, you have this feeling like you wanna quit or start over 'cause you feel like what you just wrote was wayway way not good enough and seemed like it just dragged on? I was like that with this upload. But then I thought.. "Oohweelz. My goal this year was to type a million words! How can I do that if I keep deleting thousands of words and redoing them?" ...So. I'm keeping whatever I have on here. Hahahah. This update has a lot of _looking-back-in-the-past_ stuff and _mindless thoughtings_. Might get a bit confusing.

 **Warning:** Many mistakes here and there. Some on purpose. Some are not.. And what else... Oh, yes. And IT's a freakin long chapter! For me anyway. The bottom half of this upload was the main point of this update.

 **xDxD** I wrote the poem "Boredom" (originally titled "I Am Bored and Lazy") like ten years ago in ninth grade. I changed it up a little. I replaced "I Am" with "Little Tornado of Terror" **xD**

 **ENJOY!**

* * *

 **...**

Upload : Tornado of Terror (with a side of "Blizzard" and a prince from another dimension)

" **What to do to Get Rid of this Boredom?** "

 **...**

* * *

Tatsumaki  
10-Years-Old

" **Boredom** "

Little Tornado of Terror was bored and lazy.  
She wondered if she would ever see a ghost.  
She heard them crying and whining about their deaths.  
She saw them having pale faces with blood all over their bodies.  
She wanted to know how they died.  
Little Tornado of Terror was so bored and lazy.  
She pretended her favorite anime characters came to life.  
She was surprised, shocked, and scared.  
She touched things left over from the explosion.  
She worried someone may have gotten hurt.  
She cried because she couldn't do anything to stop it.  
OMG, she hated this! Little Tornado of Terror was so bored!  
She understood things don't always go the way one wants them to.  
She'd say, "Life isn't always fair."  
She dreamed there would someday be world peace.  
She tried to be more helpful.  
She hoped she has better control of things.

Argh! Really now! What can she do to get rid of this boredom?

* * *

That was always Tatsumaki's life.

Full of boredom. Full of destruction. Full of pain. Full of fear. Full of suffering.

But the wreaked havocings were rarely for reals. Most times, it was all just in the petite lady's head. Nothing was more dangerous than Tatsumaki's mind when Tatsumaki was bored.

Yes, she was dangerous. But she was even more so when she thinks.

So don't ever get her started on using her headnoodle. Her brain is a threat, not only to all of humanity, but pretty much to all earthlings. Like, for literals, she has ESP. She can have a wrecking out-of-this-Earth rock larger than life end the planet to nonexistence.

It was almost 6 P.M.

She sighed.

The S-Class lady, often mistaken for a child due to her vertically challenged height, was in her livingroom, staring at her wall. Actually, she wasn't exactly staring at her wall. She was staring at nothing in particular. She only happened to face that side of the livingroom as she daydreamed, not moving as she floated about a foot and a half off the floor. She'd been levitating there like that for nearly four hours.

The petite second ranker of Class S absent-mindedly shook her head, her upper back length curls lightly swishing from side to side, eyes unseeing. Far off. While physically safe at home, her mind was lost and elsewhere. Probably off in Lalaland.

She had nothing better to do. Nothing to clean. Tatsumaki's home was always so neat and always so spotless. With her ESP powers, tidying up was a jiffy and never a problem.

It had been strangely peaceful. No demons rising from the underworld, no monsters crawling out of hiding, no extraterrestrials from outer space wanting to invade earth.

A couple months before, evil-doers were showing up here and there, left and right each day. But lately these last couple weeks, only a handful of **Wolf** threats, **Tiger** level threats, and one threat level **Demon** showed up.

No **Dragon** level disasters though.

And no **God** level threat disasters too, not since that spaceship full of aliens destroyed A-City.

Yep.

A fine, ordinary, boring day. It was the same as yesterday.

Hopefully, it won't be the same boring thing tomorrow. But she doubted it.

The green haired lady blinked, her eyes coming to a focus. Swallowing, she noticed how super dry her throat was. She needed a drink.

Maybe she should try phoning the other S classers again and see what they were up to? She called them all and a few of the Heroes Association workers earlier that afternoon.

No one answered her calls except one staff member, a bespectacled man, greeting her call with a - " _We don't need you_ ," followed by a quick explanation, " _A high ranking of the top class such as yourself is not necessary for taking care of a job that could be easily done by a high ranking B Class. Or a low ranking A Class._ " Then the dude – the freaking dude – hung up on her.

Some darn dang colorful words exploded out of her lips.

Before Tatsumaki then espered her voice, making it travel from her city, A, all the way to Z-City. Her voice reached the one open ear not covered by an earpiece of the young man she'd just spoken to, the freakin dude who dared to hang up on her.

" **Jeez, not even a little goodbye?** "

The guy heard her loud and clear. So did the other Superheroes Society workers in the same room. It was as if Tornado of Terror was in the same room with them. They were puzzled when she wasn't actually there.

The not literally physically four-eyed man figured he just discovered another unique and useful ability of the talented psychic. " _I believe our little psychokinetic just showed us a new trick she picked up._ " He commented this with a straight face and a monotone voice, the minor raising of one fine eyebrow the only little change in his expression.

" **I heard-** "

The sudden sound of her voice again made them all jump.

" **–that. Who you calling little, civvy? I found out and perfected this ability years ago. This is no new trick. I've done this once before in public. Where were you that time? There's –** "

A random female worker Tatsumaki never cared to learn the name of spoke up. " _Around that time, he'd been in an accident that left him in a coma for two weeks._ "

But it was as if Tatsumaki hadn't heard her at all. The second rank kept right on talking over her.

" **– more to my powers a simpleton like you wouldn't understand. No one person knows all the things I am capable of doing. Not even my sister.** "

That was earlier after noon. They haven't heard from her again for the next couple of hours.

It was a useful ability. Just as she was able to send her voice to anyone she wanted by knowing their location, able to throw her verbal sayings to places where the people were that she wanted to get the message to, Tatsumaki could also throw the sounds made from that place, or any place really, back to where she was. The world's strongest ESP human was able to have conversations with anybody on earth with no help from techso gadgets. She could hear them and they were able to hear her as clear as speaking through any advanced communication device and as loud as if in the same time, same place as them.

No, it wasn't telepathy. She couldn't read minds or talk to others in their heads. This was all outside voices. Not inside.

The only reason Tornado of Terror hadn't heard the lady was because she didn't think to simultaneously send the voices in that one room in the headquarters back to her while she was in the middle of talking.

Tornado of Terror hated being interrupted. They were free to choose not to hear her out if they so wanted. They could have had their ears covered for however long she was yapping. They could speak to someone with their headset. Or they could blast music using earphones. But when she was talking, they best let her finish talking. Because only when she was done talking would she hear them out.

Back in her early teens, she pranked her relatives every now and then. Not all the time because even that got tiring and doing it so often would have none of the startled surprise she always tried to aim for with their reactions.

She'd pranked total strangers from random cities too.

While most strangers freaked out on her, there were these two dudes she tried pranking last year, both pranks months apart, where she ended up enjoying the talks she had with them. Both men were a few years younger than her and they claimed to be heroes just like her.

One man said he had the ability to defeat any monster with a single punch and how he hated it because it made fighting boring.

At first, Tatsumaki had to roll her eyes at that. She thought he was just another egotistical man who overestimated his strength like most men had the tendency to do. She pictured him as a head-to-toe hairy guy with scars from battles won. She thought he was at least seven to eight feet tall with a heavily muscled body that could wreck wrecking balls without the need to dodge out of the way, or tighten and flex his muscles, as the ball that was known to cause wreckage would shatter upon impact on his person.

Though, even if the guy was nowhere near her level of power, she understood the annoyance of how being so strong could be. How exasperating it was not able to meet anyone who could challenge her.

They had that in common.

But that was where their alikeness ended.

It turned out the man, who Tatsumaki couldn't remember the name of or his superhero name, was unknown. When she talked to him, he had just joined the National Hero Registry and hadn't gotten his superhero name yet. He was bald, was only a hero for fun, and he lived in a small apartment he sometimes couldn't even afford to pay rent on time. He spoke about free food. The monsters he wiped out sometimes become the main ingredient of his home cooked meals.

Tatsumaki was the opposite of all those. She was not bald. People knew her. 'Cause, ya'know, since she was an S Class superhero and all. She felt that being a superhero was an obligation. And she had money! She had a big place. There was never a need to take home the monsters and demons she took out just to feed herself.

Besides, why eat filthy monsters when she could fly her favorite good mood food from all over the world to her using her powers? (Sometimes) she payed for them. When she remembered to, that was. She'd send money, usually double the amount than what was the total price she took, to those places with a short and to the point explanation to the owners that she- _"Robbed them the other day, so here's some payment."_

She could buy all the food she wanted and, unlike her younger sister, she never felt the need to watch what she ate. It was hard for Tatsumaki to gain weight. She ate as much energy as her mind powers burned energy each day. Flying about and moving things around was like working out. It was exercise for her mind. It made her powers stronger and last longer.

Her sister didn't use her powers as much. Sometimes her sister, Fubuki, let her underlings do all the dirty work before lifting a finger to help when they were unable to take care of the problem. That's why Tatsumaki's sister had to watch what she ate. She didn't burn as much energy.

The single-hit guy also mentioned he was into anime and manga and video games. Tornado of Terror was a fan of manga and anime. But she wasn't that into video games. She didn't understand them. She'd rather daydream.

The other guy - whose real name, nickname, and superhero name she also forgot - was a bit more weird. He told her the story of his life, how he was in fact a prince from another dimension. He appeared in this world at the age of 12, and at 14, decided to become a hero after seeing a hero show on television.

She's not gonna lie. The whole time she was talking to him, she thought he was delusional. She thought he was one of those losers who was constantly living a fantasy life in their head and couldn't tell what was reality and what wasn't anymore. She had imagined him slightly chubby with a bowl cut hair and average height.

Tatsumaki thought the guy was about as somewhat interesting as the other dude. This guy had a strong sense of justice. She kind of liked that about him. But all of his justice-speeching had made her feel simultaneously awed and annoyed.

She tried to contact them both again. But Tornado of Terror didn't remember the locations she sent her voice to and threw their voices from. Not that she tried her hardest to remember. She moved on from them after nearly a full minute of failing to remember where they were when she'd esper-spoken to them.

And yes, the "same time, same place" bit about her espered voice did imply she could even send her voice, not only through space, but through time as well.

Every morning, since she turned nine years old, she would use her own ESP voice jumper as an alarm clock, and – or, a schedule planner reminder.

Like, only the night before she loudly spoke, "Wake up." She ESP-ed her voice not to echo repeat back the words until it was 7 AM. So, early in the a.m., she was woken at 7 o'clock by her own say.

And not only that. The lady could also psychokinesis her motion force. Through time and space, she was able to make people and objects move. Along with the voice of hers telling herself to wake up, Tatsumaki was forcefully shoved out of her own bed, too. By a force she forced.

Tatsumaki let out a grunt.

It was time to bother some people. The little lady patted all of the pocket areas she had. She was about to reach for her phone –  
PAT. Nope, no phone there.  
PATPAT. No phone.  
PAT. PAT. "Gah!"  
-which was currently not in any of her pockets at that moment.

For a split second, a memory back to when she last had her phone flashed in her mind.

She blinked.

Eyes rolling and a sigh escaping her lips, she threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "My phone fell in the toilet." Tatsumaki leaned back. She interlaced her hands behind her head and went horizontal in the air as if lying on an invisible bed.

Oh, well. She didn't need her phone.

She would see what Silver Fang was up to. He was probably back in his dojo. Earlier, when she called the number there, his one and currently only student answered, telling her, " _Master was hanging out playing games with Genos, a bald caped B Class nobody, King, and your sister with every one of her lackeys._ "

Closing her eyes – no, she didn't have to do this to talk to someone long distant away – the 28-year-old threw her voice.

"S Class, Rank 3, are you there?"

The question was heard inside Bang's gym dojo in Z City.

Tornado of Terror was in A City.

The questioning voice then reached the front yard outside of the dojo.

"S Class-"

In

"–Rank 3-"

each

"–are-"

flights

"–you-"

of

"–there?"

..stairs before the dojo, her voice descending the many steps.

"S Class, Rank 3!"

In the area between the bottom steps and the small forest within Z City.

Tatsumaki puffed. She pulled her interlocked fingers from behind her head and crossed her arms, growling. Opening her eyes, she glared and grumbled at her high livingroom ceiling. "How bothersome."

Not only could the S Class, Rank 2 Esper send her voice to one tiny spot anywhere, she could also have her voice heard all around a much larger area.

Or multiple places at the same time, large or small.

On the second day of being a superhero, she quickly grew tired of civvy people questioning who she was. It was in the middle of that day, when the then fifth ranker of S Class had the whole country, cities A through Z, hear Tiny Tornado of Terror's voice.

Back then, Silver Fang, Atomic Samurai, and Metal Knight were still ahead of her in rank.

Only those with fine hearing heard her that day. Tatsumaki's powers didn't involve talking to people telepathically. So deaf people that had family and friends nearby were informed soon after the message was heard.

" **Listen up, civvies! This is S Class, Rank 5, Tornado of Terror. No, there is no "tiny" in my superhero name. Best understand this, got it? Good. Carry on!** "

Those in their homes doing their own thing were startled by the random out-of-the-blue message by an out-of-nowhere voice. People at the malls hanging out heard. Peeps taking care of business in the office- or taking care of their business in the bathroom heard. Those in school, out on the streets, the beach, at the parks, inside the hospitals– had jumped in surprise. The ones lightly dosing woke..

But those in deep heavy sleep, unconscious, or in a coma, in headphones, stuck in delusions – etcetera – did not hear the message.

People held captive screamed to her alter ego identity for help.

If Tatsumaki then had let herself hear the voices of the whole country, she could have heard and save those that were in accidents that day, beaten that day, kidnapped that day. She could have helped the ones that had medical issues and were hurt or injured with no phone on them to call an ambulance at that time.. She could have prevented the deaths of several who were killed that day.

At least some of them.

But nope. She hadn't. She'd only voiced her message throughout the country.

Didn't care to hear anyone's reaction or cries for help then.

Tatsumaki just saw in the news the following day what people thought of her then. She read some of the "comments" in the Heroes Association site by friends and family of the victims and survivors. Too terrified of her were they, of what she could do to them if they dared complain or demand she get fired, they only let their experiences the day before known online, indirectly talking to the Superheroes Society while hiding behind their computer screens.

Tatsumaki tried not to let it get to her. But. It did.

She cried then. She didn't cry often. She was a "tough, mini-sized woman" according to her younger sister, Fubuki.

So it was quite a shock to Fubuki, Miss Blizzard, seeing her sister sprawled on the floor, bawling her eyes out like that on the third day of being a superhero. The lady Blizzard of Hell, a then eighth ranker of Class B, knew what had her big older little sis sobbing. She read comments in the internet about her sibling all morning.

Before that day, Tatsumaki joined the Superhero Society for the money and fame. But starting that day years ago, she began to feel her job as a hero to be a duty.

In and out of Silver Fang's dojo property,  
the little forest between his dojo and the seemably deserted part of Z City,  
the dojo of his older brother, Bomb,  
the stores Silver Fang often went to,  
the food places, fast or fancy, the old fart visits often,  
the rooms the old man's usually in at the Heroes Organization Headquarters in A City,  
the rooms the old man's usually in at the Heroes Organization Headquarters in Z City,  
in the parts of Z Park Silver Fang preferred to hang out in..  
...reached Tornado of Terror's growl.

Her voice hit all those places except Bang's home. The petite lady had no clue where he actually lived.

* * *

At Z Park, Bang was showing young Miss Blizzard and her Blizzard Group of ladies and not so gentlemen some of the training he had his students do.

Would have had his stu _dent_ ( _ **s**_ ) do. He currently only had one student.

But that was about to change. Soon. Fingers crossed!

While his only student (for now) was running this way and that, back-and-forth and around in circles, Bang was chasing the young man.

While freaking backwards.

And upside down.

On one hand with his other hand tied behind his back.

Blindfolded.

And with his ears plugged.

And Bang was keeping up with the guy more than four times younger than him. Who was unimpressively right-side-up running on his own two feet, facing forward, his eyes and ears not covered. Truthfully, the student was supposed to do what the teacher was doing. The young man was supposed to chase the grandpa-aged teacher around while his sight and hearing was blocked.

Ha! No way was the dude at that level yet.

Hours before, the Blizzard Group were pestering Saitama the "Caped Baldy" again. They were never going to quit trying to recruit the B Class.

The Blizzards were all in Class B. With Saitama joining them, other than the S Classers and the top ranking Class A's, the Blizzards would be the strongest group. Maybe even stronger than the lower ranking half of the Class A-ers put together with the Blizzard Group's combined strengths and strength in numbers.

Class B, Rank 1, Miss Blizzard of Hell, once tried and failed to defeat the bald guy in a silly cape on her own. Since her power level was comparable to a high ranking A Classer, if the Superheroes Society actually saw Caped Baldy in action, they probably would have bumped him up to a top rank in Class A.

But the lady Blizzard was pretty certain the dude was not yet in the same level as Class A, Rank 1, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask.

How utteringlied inaccurate of Miss Blizzard and millions of others in the city and neighboring cities.

They had no idea that a single punch from Saitama could have Sweet Mask shattering into trillions of microscopic pieces of unrecognizable skin, muscle, bones, guts, and other innardly stuff.

Around noon that day, Saitama's team was once more challenged by the Blizzard Group to another random competition. The past challenges have all been different. Luckily, Saitama's team have always won so far. This last competition was an eating challenge.

Loser team had to do whatever the winning team said. As always.

Saitama and S Classed Silver Fang and King lost to a big guy in the Blizzard Group.

But that big guy was no match for S Class Genos's appetite.

Even though the Blizzards were defeated again for the seventh time, they didn't lose hope that one of these days, sooner or later, they would win and have Caped Baldy, Bang, Genos, and King join the Blizzards of Hell.

The main person they really wanted to recruit was Saitama. It made more sense for him to join them than the S Classers. He was in B Class, same as all of the members.

Foh sho, they could not force the three Class S's to join. Even with Miss Blizzard and her flunkies combined capabilities, it was still not enough to force at least even the last ranking S Class, rank 17, to do anything.

But it would be pretty awesome if every person in Caped Baldy's team held up their end of the deal and joined the Blizzard Group when the Blizzards do eventually come out the victor in a competition.

As the winning side, Saitama and Genos told Fubuki no more challenges for at least the rest of that year.

It was only February 14.

Ten months–

Ten and a half months before her and her underlings could ask for another challenge.

That wouldn't do.

She would just have to find another way to trick Saitama into another competition.

The other two men on the winning team didn't mind the challenges that much. They knew it was Saitama the Blizzard Group were really after. If and when Saitama's team did eventually lost to them, the Class S's knew they did not have to join.

But Caped Baldy was their friend.

They're always going to do their best to win. Not only just to win for Baldy's sake. They all wanted to win for the sake of winning.

A competition was a competition.

They were men.

They were superheroes.

They'll never back down.

Besides, while their straight victories were more than satisfactory, having the loser competition do what they want was hecka awesome, too. It was like icing on a cake– or a cherry on top of the icing cake... Whatever the saying goes.. Bottom line. It was a bonus.

That day, King, the Strongest Man on Earth - Ha! Lie! - asked for five new video games. He did the same the other five wins previous because during the first time Saitama's group won, King and his friends were treated at a restaurant by Fubuki.

Thirty freakin expensive new games in a few months. The games King had been saving up for. He had no need to spend the money now.

Snort.

Wow.

Life was good.

The only thing the old dojo master Bang had asked for in past winnings was to have them all to eat out at his favorite restaurant. With karaoke and drinks, having a great time, and y'know, having the losers pay for everything.

Hee! Hee!

But nah. Not this time. This time he asked that all of the Blizzard Group from Hell either join his dojo, or help him find students to join his dojo.

Most of the men and women didn't want to join so for a couple hours now they tried helping the grey haired and wrinkled senior.

Some said they would think about it.

Only two, both females, a girl in her late teens and a lady in her early 30s, made the decision to join. They were brave. Go women power to them..

Bak-bak. The rest of the Blizzards were big fat chickens.

More of them might have thought of joining. But then they remembered hearing the rumors about how one of Bang's student went berserk injuring the master's other students.

That student was long gone, banished by Bang.

But the B Class dudes and dudines were afraid at the likelihood of the mad man showing up again after if-when they joined to cripple them all in the same way.

Truthfully, the two ladies, who made up their minds to join Bang's dojo, hadn't heard of any of this. So it wasn't exactly that they were brave so much as unknowing of the dangerous not-so-long-ago history of the dojo.

 **6 o'clock P.M.**

While watching the master and student, The Blizzards were handing out fliers to random park goers.

It was now dark, yet there were still people in the park. Usually, they would have already locked themselves inside their homes before the sun even set. But with a third ranking S Class superhero there and a whole group of Class B heroes, people felt it was safe to stay. At best within eyesight of them.

Young grownup park joggers, park hanger-outter teens, adults watching park playing children, and the park playing kids were each given fliers.

Bang thought maybe he should open the dojo to anyone five years and up.

"S Class, Rank 3, Silver Fart. Are you there?"

Silver Fart- uh?

Yeah, okiedokes. Whatevs..

The old fart didn't hear Tornado of Terror's voice call for him. He didn't see his student, Fubuki, and all the members of her group jump, startled by the sudden sound of the group's leader's older, shorter sister's voice.

But Bang did know when his student stopped running.

How did the old man know that?

He just did.

He felt it and so halted a split of a split moment after the young man stopped, stopping about an inch behind the dude. And thinking the guy was only taking a quick break to catch his breath, Bang, still upsidedown on one hand, handhopped around his student and kept on handrunhopping until he was no longer seeable to the man and the Blizzard Group.

Uponeded seeing superhero Silver Fang leave, civilians started making their way home. They didn't feel as safe at the park in the dark now that the S Class left. But it wasn't because they didn't think the strongest group in the Hero's Association couldn't keep them safe. They were just a little afraid of the group of B Class themselves.

The Class B heroes felt a little insulted.

Fubuki gulped. "Sister?" She looked around. Her older sister was not there.

This must be the same thing as that fancy power show off trick her older sis did back when they were still new to being superheroes. Fubuki never knew her sister had this power back then. It surprised her. A cool power big -ahem- "shorter big sis" had that Fubuki didn't. Another way her sister was better than her.

Sigh.

At first, Fubuki wasn't sure if she was jealous. She was sure she would have been.

But this strange power of sis's was like talking on the phone. And who doesn't have a phone nowadays?

But at least with a phone both could hear both sides at the same time.

Last time Fubuki remembered Tatsumaki using this power, Tatsumaki didn't hear the people calling to her.

Maybe because the people didn't have the power to talk back to her sis? One would think her older sibling had the power to hear them if she wanted to.. Or it could have just been because her sis then wasn't talking to anyone in particular and so didn't hear them?

Her sister never used this power again after that. Not that Miss Blizzard knew of. This would be the second time Fubuki witnessed this strange power of Tatsumaki's.

"Fubuki."

"Sis, you can hear me?"

"Duh."

There was a pause before..

"...Hold on. There are like over a hundred people trying to talk to me at once."

Miss Blizzard frowned. Oh. So it appeared the petite green haired woman can hear others. Had her sister always been able to hear others? Did she ignore the cries for help of the towns and neighboring towns people? Or did the older esper gained this ability only recently? Or was there a different reason why her sibling didn't hear them then but is hearing them now? Combing a hand through her hair, Fubuki advised, "Don't ignore them. What happened last time might happen again."

Tatsumaki snorted.

"Don't worry. The whole country isn't hearing me right now. Only people currently in the places Rank 3's usually around heard me. Not at this moment though. I'm speaking to only you now. No, nobody sounds hurt or is calling for me. They're all just saying HI right now."

The stronger ESP user sighed.

"A couple dudes here and there are asking me to marry them. And a lady just yelled out her son was of legal age to marry. She doesn't care if her son is gay. She wants him to marry me."

She let out another sigh.

"And a couple just asked me to autograph their child."

She scoffed.

"A man, who may or may not be a man, he sounds like a talking chipmunk, just asked me to bare him a kid."

Sighing once more, she grumbled,

"And all the students in Bomb's dojo were chanting, TINY Tornado of Terror. TINY Tornado of Terror!"

"That sucks."

Tatsumaki cackled.

"Eh. My screams will be heard throughout Bomb's dojo all month. Over and over, day and night and over again they'll hear, "TORNADO OF TERROR! Get it right! TORNADO OF TERROR! Get it right!" inside the dojo and about a two hundred feet radius outside of the dojo."

Tatsumaki let out an unladylike snort.

Fubuki could hear the smirk in her sister's voice.

"See if they ever dare call me tiny again.."

Laughing nervously, Miss Blizzard of Hell shuddered. "Sis. You are scary."

"I know– wait."

"What?"

"Have you seen Rank 3? I've been calling him in places I know he's usually in. He hasn't answered me."

"Why, is it important?"

"No."

"Ooh.. 'kay..." That confused Fubuki.

"I was bored again. Decided to call someone. He was randomly my first choice. It's not important, but him not answering me is annoying."

"Ooh." Fubuki shrugged. "Well, I just saw him handrun away. Blindfolded and ears plugged."

"That would explain it. But enough about the old fart. What you up to?"

"You know, the usual."

Tatsumaki took a shot at guessing.

"Trying not to eat?"

"Well, I'm not not trying to eat. I've actually been busy."

"Trying to look intimidating with all your lackeys at the park,"

Tatsumaki tried guessing again.

Eyes rolling at that, Fubuki looked over to her underlings, a hand drumming her other forearm. "Guessing isn't your thing, sibling. In fact, we've been trying to look as approachable as we're physically able to in black suits and shades."

"Wear white. Or rainbow. Or maybe have free food with you. People normally come for the free food."

"White, never. Rainbow? Ew, no thank you. Free food? Maybe tomorrow. We're almost done for today. It's getting late."

"You know, people might think you're trying to poison them. Wear something else other than black."

"No."

Tatsumaki blew a raspberry.

"Very mature."

"I apologize. That was not my intention. I meant to act immature. But if you couldn't tell that, sis, well... Uh.."

Tatsumaki laughed.

"Nevermind. I have no idea where I'm going with this."

Bang's one and only stupid –no, sorry - Bang's one and only _student_ (for now) grumbled. "Boring," whined the stupi- the _student_. He shook his head and ran off to go find Master Bang.

"So,"

Tatsumaki started.

"If you're not doing your usual of trying to look all scary and starving yourself,"

she coughed,

"then what is it exactly you are trying to do, hmm?"

"Recruiting Caped Baldy. You know. Like usual."

"That loser again? What's so great about him?"

"Ask Silver Fang, King, and Genos. They're friends with the guy. The man's strong. I want him on my team."

Tatsumaki didn't understand why three S Classers and her sister wanted to do anything with a boring looking bald boy. Her sister even told her how a Class S level ninja assassin by the name Speed-O' Sound Sonic was obsessed with trying to defeat the B Class nobody.

A Class B nobody.

Seriously.

"Whatever,"

humphed the older lady.

"See you later."

Miss Blizzard waved a hand to dismiss Tornado of Terror. Then she paused mid swing of her hand. Could her sister even see her? Could Tatsumaki also see her if she wanted to?

* * *

 **8:something P.M.**

After about another two more hours of aimlessly air swimming around in her home and daydreaming about random things, ahem - yaoi - cough, Tatsumaki's stomach growled like a cray-cray hungry wild animal. She hadn't had anything to eat since noon. All the flying around made her hungry. "I think I'll go to where all the best desserts and treats are.

And with that, up, up, and away she wooshed, all the way from A-City to Z-City because that's where..

..a three-story Mouth Watering Mansion was at where she appeared a few minutes later.

Cookies, muffins, cakes, cupcakes, donuts, ice-creams, candies of all sizes, shapes, brands, and range of sweetness. All. There.

 **...**

Mumen "Chosen" Rider was paying for a dozen Tooth Decaying Donuts when he saw the freezer opening behind the woman standing in front of the cash register by an invisible force. Two whole gallon tubs of ice cream flew out.

"Will that be all," the lady asked.

"Uh." Quick! He had to think fast. Sighing casually, he shrugged. "Maybe a popsicle or something. Any flavor," came his nonchalant reply.

The lady turned as the two tubs of Body Ruining ice cream went flying over her head, missing them.

The miss, or missus, judging by the wedding ring on her finger, rolled her eyes at the wide open freezer door. "Seriously? Who left this open? The jerks." As she went to grab a random popsicle in the opened freezer, a drawer opened itself up beside her. An ice cream scooper levitated out. The drawer closed right when she stood and the ice cream scooper was out of sight the moment she turned back to face the check out register. She held out the popsicle for him.

He didn't take it. But handed her the cash that covered the cost of a dozen cupcakes, plus the two tubs of ice cream, and what the cost of an average ice cream scooper might've been. "You know what," he gently pushed at the outstretched hand that held the popsicle. "I change my mind." He pointed to the money he gave her. "But go ahead and keep the change," he nodded.

Then left.

There actually was no change. He gave an exact amount. Almost exact amount. Okay, he gave an almost-amount. But the lady didn't know two gallon tubs of Body Ruinings and an ice cream scooper just went missing. So to her, it was as if he'd just given her a big tip.

When Mumen Rider, the ex-bicyclist hero who now went by his middle name "Chosen" found a person sitting in front of two gallons of ice cream with an ice cream scooper, he walked right up to her. "Miss Tornado of Terror, I believe?" He set the dozen donuts down on the table.

Tatsumaki lifted her head slightly and looked at him from the corner of her eye. "Whyuyouwah," asked the esper, both of her cheeks bulging like two shapely butts from the two scoops of Body Ruining she had shoved in each. In one gulp, she swallowed the four scoops of ice cream in her mouth. "Do not assume you can just freely converse with me as you please, civvie lowlife."

He stared at her.

She stared at him. He doesn't move like she wanted him to. No, she did not try her ESP powers on him. She was focusing wholey on stuffing her face with her second favorite ice cream flavor in the world. She wasn't even levitationing herself. She was uber muchly for reals on her little bottom, giving a hundred percent of her attention to chowing down the tubs. But this man here was keeping her from doing just that.

Might as well that Tornado of Terror didn't try to esper at him. She would be more disappointed she literal-truly could not have him ESP-ed no matter how hard she focused on moving him.

Being gone for four months… His kidnappers.. They did something to him. Because powers don't work on him. Powers couldn't hurt him. Powers can't make him do anything.

But magic could. And as far as he knew, magic didn't exist in this world. But where he was taken to by his kidnappers, that world was full of magic.

He got hurt there.

A lot.

His kidnappers were also the reason he first came to this world over a decade ago. They were the reason he was blind. And because of them, he wore goggles that allowed him to see outlines of things and people in his surroundings. It was like watching a black and white animation without the shades of gray. Everything was black. A half detailed drawing of beings and things were in white. No shades. No shadows.

He couldn't see clouds or smoke, but he could see the outline of the sun. He had no way of knowing if he was looking at the sun or moon if he didn't sleep at night, it was the days of a full or almost full moon, and there was no clock to tell him if it was A.M. or P.M.. He couldn't see the reflections on reflective surfaces, the light of the sun, or the light of any lightbulb. But he was able to see the shapes of lightbulbs and the shape of the sun.

Since appearing in this world, "Chosen" had never seen the stars. They have no outline in his vision through the goggles. If stars weren't several light years away, he might be able to see their outlines like he could with the sun. But since they were so far, they were now just traveling light to him. And "Chosen" can't see the light.

By the way, the air quotes around "Chosen" is part of the spelling of his middle name.

She stared at him.

He stared at her.

She jerked his way, growling at him.

He flinched back, hands shooting up and out in front of his chest as if ready to karate chop at something. He threw her a jokingly serious facial expression, hands and body doing a comical attempt at a karate movement and stance. "Please spare the guy who just payed for your Body Ruins and ice cream scooper." He glanced down at the dozen Tooth Decaying donuts he bought. "At least until these are all gone." He picked up two Tooth Decaying tooth decayers and bit big chomps from each. With each hands full, he used his forearm to push the box of donuts an inch closer to her. "Want some," he offered.

She stared at him. After a lengthly pause, she sighed, rollering her eyeballs at the oh-so kind dude. "Whatever," Tornado of Terror mumbled as she grabbed a donut and threw it to her open mouth. She pretty much inhaled it. She skipped the chewing and unnaturally swallowed it whole.

The single word reply of hers was meant to be short for something.

Translation: Thank you for the donuts. Please, have a seat. Let's be friends. I don't mind being friends with a weakling nobody.

Tornado of Terror's younger sister was the only one she knew to have closestlierly understood that.

"Chosen" planted his butt on the seat next to the S Class. He shoved both donuts into his speaky-eater hole and with a mouth full of Tooth Decay, replied, "No biggie. You are welcome, my new friend."

It seemed the guy understood the real meaning she meant behind the one word answer too, and understood it probably even better than her sister did.

Licking his lips, the dude slowly brought another donut to his lips that couldn't get enough. A somewhat metaphoric talk. Because he had enough. His tummy had enough. The foodway tube in his throat was getting sick of swallowing the sweets. It was only his tongue that was still looking for more.

Body Ruining.

Tooth Decaying.

Alternatingly, simultaneously, or at random until Tatsumaki finished one tub of ice cream. She peeked inside the donut box and saw there was one left.

The man pushed the box to her. "Take it," he offered.

She took it.

"So," he grinned. "I remember hearing somewhere, I'm not sure where, maybe someone quoting you online, that you're a fan of the **Realm Hopping** book series?" He waved at her excitedly with both hands before pointing his thumbs to his chest. "I'm a fan, too."

Tatsumaki blinked. She couldn't get Fubuki or the other Class S'es to read the books. She got three workers from the Hero Association Society to try the first book. None of them liked it. And she would always argue with other **Realm Hopping** fans she met online because they liked all the wrong characters and had unforgivable One True Pairing ships. So she bet, whatever this dude's name was, that he was just like the rest of them.

"Don't you just hate it when nobody else likes the K2 and QX ship? MN and UW also totally go together."

Ha! She sure lost that bet.. with herself.

As the no-name kept blabbering about the **Realm Hopping** , a strong epiphany smacked Tatsumaki right in the face, upside the head, and blew-up like fireworks in her mind.

She was going to be bestfriends with this man.

He yapped on.

She listened and agreed to most everything he had to say.

The past hour was the most she'd ever nodded in her life. It was actually quite nice being this agreeable for once.

She had the deep gut feeling she would never ever nod like this ever again if anything were to happen to him. Foh sho, it would have had to be him that something happened to and not her. It was going to be him because nothing would ever happen to her, duh.

Not everything _lost_ is a _loss_. No lie, she'd gladly lose the bet again with herself (Haha. Toink.) if it meant being hit with an intense realisensation like this that she had just found her very first bestfriend.

If she ever felt the need to squee, it was now and it'll be the first time ever. SQUEE! Even if it was just mentally. Her favorite books, shows, and food never made her want to squee like this. They put a smile on her face, yeah, but not once did she remember ever wanting to squee like this.

Normally, she would never share her food. To her, a single piece and one scoop shared, was a single piece and one scoop too many. She felt she was already oversharing with just that one while others would call her selfish. Every shared pieces and scoops, or whatever, was the pieces and scoops she could have had for herself- lost. _Lost_! That made it a _loss_. Having a loss was a gigantihuge "NO" to the tiny Tornado of Terror.

Gaining a friend wasn't normal, though.

What was a lost scoop if she gained a friend? It was like an exchange. So really, it wasn't even a loss since it made things even. Right?

She couldn't believe she was about to do this.

Abnormally, she scooped up a scoop of Body Ruining ice cream and held out the ice cream scooper to her new bestest friend. A scoop was all she was willing to share with him. He was not yet worth more than a scoop of her second favorite ice cream. The thought of losing - "sharing" really, because to Tatsumaki, those two different words might as well be the same exact one - the thought of losing more scoops of ice cream to him in the future strangely did not make her face want to frown. In fact, she would say she couldn't wait. Because it only meant they were way deep in this bestfriendship and there was no turning back! He was stuck with her now! Forever and ever- Bwhahahah!

A mental image and surround soundings of thunder and lightning boomed, cracked, and flashed all around her-

No. Wait.

It was real.

The sound of heavy rain followed a moment after.

With a slight twitch of her eyebrows, terrifying Tornado of Terror had the storm clouds flying away from Z City.

The big bright crescent moon beamed down on the towns people.

The people of Z City beamed back.

They celebrated. Those that had plans that night but had to cancel because they were expecting a storm, decanceled their plans. Everyone's plans were back in action. Those that didn't make plans that night because they were expecting a storm, suddenly found themselves having plans. What most of their plans involved was staying in crowded places and using cars or buses instead of on foot in case they had to flee from monsters. After all, it was night time.

But the lack of **Demon** level threats and the fewer and fewerenings of **Tiger** and **Wolf** level threats these few weeks made the towns people more daring. In a still slightly cautious way. Some had plans to stay in crowded indoors like the malls and movie theaters. Others with outdoorsy plans were going to the nightly party at Perpetual Pawr Tay street in 36th Avenue. A young multi billionaire, who renamed the street, owned all the houses in that street. There were parties every night the sky was clear. Anyone who wanted to go were welcome. Complete random strangers too drunk to go home were welcome to sleep in one of the homes.

Several homeless people actually stay in some of those homes. It was fine as long as they cleaned up every morning after the parties. Sometimes it took them all day but just in time for another party later that night.

The grateful people of Z City knew who to thank. In unison, as if rehearsed, a loud "Thank you, Tornado of Terror" was shouted by more than half the people in town that the neighboring cities heard.

Her mind was a bit clearer now that the hunger pangs was gone. She realized after stuffering her food tube a full gallon tub of ice cream, the nice guy did just let her eat eight of his donuts.

Alrighty then! Maybe he was worth losing - sharing - two scoops of ice cream, after all! The scoop in the scooper she had held out for him, she threw in his direction, the melting glob stopping mid air inches from his face.

"Chosen" licked the slimy, silky, honest to goodness. He saw Tornado of Terror was about to throw another scoop his way when he help up a hand. "That's okay," he politely turned down. "I'm good with just this. Thank you." Before buying the dozen Tooth Decaying donuts, he bought and finished a dozen Gum Rotting cupcakes by himself.

"What the-" Tatsumaki jerked back, mid gasped, and frowned. She paused. Then shrugged, face blank once more. Oh, well. She tried to be nice... "More for me then."

A ringtone sounded. It was an anime theme song and the anime was her most watched one.

"Chosen" took out his phone. "Yes," he answered, slurping the flying melted goo before him. A second later, he held out the phone to a gawk faced S Class superhero.

" _Tornado of Terror._ "

"Huh," questioned the world's best esper.

" _Thanks a lot for the rain._ " The person didn't sound thankful. The tone of voice was too flat. " _That was sarcasm._ " Again. Monotone.

"Uh-huh."

The worker from Superhero Society Headquarters in A City, the man who hung up on her earlier that afternoon, hung up on her a second time that day.

"Chosen" had asked the National Superhero Registry to take his name off of the database. The phone they called him on was the same one he had before he was kidnapped. He kept his old number. In case they needed him for anything. He was happy to help. But he didn't want to be known as a hero while he was even weaker than he was before. He'll think about signing up again once he was confident he was strong enough to pass the fitness test in the Super Hero Entrance Exam. Along with his phone, all of his belongings were taken with him four months ago. Now that he's back, all of his things were brought back with him as well. His kidnappers weren't thieves.

"Chosen" shook his head, chuckling. "You sent the storm to A City? Weren't they going to do their nightly solar system checks tonight? It's important they see oncoming spaceships to prevent what happened to A-City from ever happening again to any city."

"Don't worry. As soon as an Unidentified Flying Object enter our solar system, my freezing force field will halt it in its place - or at least slow it down if it's not strong enough - and while that's going on, my voice will sound throughout the world, saying "UFO Alert" repeatedly until everyone in the country are safe underground in one of the Unyuu MANSIONs."

The Unyuu family were friends with the founder of the Superhero Association founder, Agoni. They were even richer than him. MULTI-QUINTILLIONAIRES. They had MANSIONs throughout the country. One in each city. The entrance to each Unyuu MANSION were the size of the Tokyo Dome, each of the underground living spaces were the size of the city it was under.

"Chosen" stared at her. She was still gaping at him. "What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?"

She lied. She thought she never mentally squeeded before meeting him. She had, actually. That anime theme song he had as a ringtone was the song that made her squee once before. That song was her life.

 **...**

Fubuki snorted. "Jee, sis. If you love the song so much, why don't you go and marry it?"

"I just might," humphed Tatsumaki. Sighing, she slumped. "No.. It's impossible."

"Annoying little..." Fubuki scratched her head, irritated.

Tatsumaki wondered out loud. "Maybe I'll marry whoever wrote the song?"

"Why not marry the next freakin dude you meet who has this as a ringtone or something? Whatever. Just quit listening to the song for a bit, will you?"

 **...**

So twice now. Twice, she'd squeed and both times were because of him. Even if it was only mentally. "I like your ringtone," the comment slipped right out of her lips very approvinglike.

Smiling, "Chosen" gave her an appreciative bow. "Why, thank you." He tried and failed to stifle a giddy muffled giggle. "I actually wrote and sang it when I was 17. It's an anime theme song," he explained as if she didn't already know. Looking around before leaning in, in a hushed voice, he spilled a secret. "Fans of the **Realm Hopping** books don't know this yet. In a few years, the book series will be made into an anime and my friend, who I sometimes give ideas for the story for, told me he wants me to compose a soundtrack for the show."

 _He freakin wrote the song?!_ Tatsumaki squee-ed.

Only this time, it wasn't in her head.

He threw his head back and let out a laugh.

Forget about a bestfriendship with this man. She wanted way more than a boring simple bestfriendship. She turned her head away from him abruptly, her cheeks bright and burning and embarrassed by her own thought. Clearing her throat after a moment, she questioned, "You're a musician?"

He nodded. Somewhat unsuredly. "Yeah.. ish." He scratched the back of his neck. "I wasn't from here. Came here when I was 12. I got into music. There were no computers and internet where I came from. You can bet I was on the computer day and night here. I searched all about music. Taught myself how to play guitar, violin, keyboard, how to read notes. Online videos really helped. I'm a drummer, too."

Tatsumaki couldn't help but think she'd heard this story before. "Where were you from?"

Lips pursed, he blinked. _Wait a sec._ "Chosen" rested his chin on his palms and drummed his fingers against his cheeks, squinting his eyes at her. A memory came to him. "Yeah, that's right. I've told you all this before."

"We've never met before now," she said out loud. On the inside, her feels were being hit with deja vu.

"Last year, remember?"

Nothing was coming to mind. But she believed him.

"I'm a prince from another dimension."

She sucked in her lips, eyes widening, hair rising. She froze. Oh.. "It's a small world." Nothing was impossible. The guy could for reals be telling the truth. The skeptic in her was just being too stubborn to fully believe him.

"When I was 14, I got into hero stuff. When not playing music or making music, I was trying to save people. It didn't matter if I had a chance or not." He snorted. "That went on for about eight years until the Superhero Society started a couple years ago. Became a full time hero until I disappeared four months ago."

Tornado of Terror raised an eyebrow at that. "Full time?" What did that mean? She was a superhero, but she mostly spent it at home, uber bored. Whenever she would go and try to take care of a demon, monster, out of control science experiment, or a self proclaimed god, she'd get a call by one of the staff members in one of the Hero Association headquarters telling her to go home.

The S Class, Rank 2 wasn't a full time superhero. The esper was only a superhero when they wanted her to be. That was the way for top rankers in Class S.

Oh, yeah. Right. She remembered him saying back then he was a C-Class hero. Those in Class C, whether they were a low ranking or a high ranking C-er, were required to do weekly heroic acts to stay in the Hero's Association. This guy disappeared for months, he said. So his name was probably out of the Heroes Registration now.

Why did he disappear, she didn't know. And she would stay not knowing because she didn't ask.

She watched him frown at his phone.

"Chosen" shook his head and sighed. "I'm sorry. I have to go." He started to get up, but paused when he glanced at her. Suddenly, he was inches from her face, his brows furrowing as he stared hard into her heart-shaped pupils. "You've got heart shaped pupils," he said. He looked at the bottom ends of her hair. "And the bottom of your hair curls are curled into heart shapes all of a sudden."

Oh, no! What if he realized her sudden attraction to him? Tatsumaki's face was on fire.

But for reals, though? She took a peep down at the corner of her eye and sure enough, in front of her shoulder were messy strands of her green hair, the ends curled into little heart shapes. How embarrassing! And he was so close... Her heartbeat quickened.

"Chosen" happened to look down on the table. He did a double take. "Woaw. That wasn't there before. Where did these come from?" In front of him was a chocolate cake decorated with chocolate chibi heads of **Realm Hopping** characters. In the center of the cake were the words -

 _ **Happy Valentines Day,  
bestfriendship**_

"It's for you," was her shy answer.

"You got this from here?"

"I didn't take it, I made it."

" ** _W_** hen," he drawled in the most obvious fake doubt he could muster.

The older lady rolled her heart-shaped pupil eyes. _I'm not lying_ , she wanted to say. Instead, she replied, "It's Valentines Day. You're my new bestfriend and so I decided to make you cake with my powers. I had my powers made this at home while you were talking about the book."

His brows rose, mouth open. It was really for him? That was so cool of her. Wow. "Thank you for this." It was the only chocolates he received that day. Last year, he'd gotten plenty of chocolates from fans on Valentines Day.

 _I'm not lying_ , she wanted to say. "I'm not lying," she said for real.

"I believe you, friendship." He gave her a hug, checked his phone one more time, and picked up the cake she made for him.

Then left.

She watched him leave until he was out of sight. Even her lips, as she pouted, was shaped like a heart. All around her were flying heart shaped sweets from the Mouth Watering Mansion store.

Realizing something, her smile turned upside-down. "Friendship? Was that what he called me? But I called him bestfriendship! How could he only be calling me friendship?!"

Realizing something else, her frown became a shocked and exasperated one.

She threw her hands in the air. "Freaking-"

She freakin forgot to ask him his name! Real name! Nickname! Superhero name!

Nothing! Nada!

She didn't even at least remember to ask him for his phone number.

Gah!

* * *

 **What to do to Get Rid of this Boredom?**

 _Answer_ : Fall in Love

* * *

 **...**

 **ME AGAIN**

 **xDxD Thank You for reading.**

 **Hahahah. Looky who got Friendship zoned? She wanted more than a bestfriendship with the guy. But bestfriendship was the next best thing. And he flat out calls her Friendship only?! LOL**

 **Next Update: Let's see what Single-Strike Guy is up to! AKA "One-Punch Man" or Caped Baldy.**

 **snicker, snicker, snort**


	4. Wishes, Dreams, Knight Mares

**_Sunday . October 1, 2017_**

 _Still October 1st here in AK. I know some parts of the world are already the 2nd there._

So this fic was supposed to be mainly about Mumen Rider but I decided after the first chapter that I'll write about other characters too. That's why so far he's been in every chapter. I'll write more about him soon and explain what happened to him while he was kidnapped.. Things like why Saitama's punch have no effect on him or why Tatsumaki wouldn't be able to make Mumen move with her powers if she tried- things like that... As for Saitama's strength being the result of his training... He told Genos and that bad guy exactly what he did and Genos was shocked at how easyaspie pieceOfcake his training was to become as powerful as he was.. Should be impossible.. So let's just say Saitama's super strength is not just strength he got from training, it's his power too like how psychic stuff is Tatsumaki's power and after being kidnapped, power has no effect on Mumen Rider..

* * *

 **I don't own the characters mentioned in this chapter. They belong to the creator of "One-Punch Man."**

 **I only own the two kids who gave Saitama cupcakes (even if they don't have a name and I don't even know if they're a boy or girl), the psychic gamer dude (only mentioned), and the Knight Mare (also only mentioned).**

* * *

So... Either my sentences are a bit choppy at times or a lot of the time they seem a bit more run-on-y.. That's 2017 July's Camp NaNoWriMo for you! ..So since it's been about three months ago when I wrote this chapter and reading this again and I actually don't get my own explanations about the psychic dreams thing. I forgot what I was trying to explain there. But I don't wanna delete or redo it, you know? So I'm just going to keep it. Hope it makes sense to you because I just confused myself.

Anyway. Why am I now just updating this when I finished the chapter over two and a half months ago during July's Camp NaNoWriMo? I don't know.. Just been busy obsessed with Spider-Man Homecoming and Game of Thrones and now Misfits just last week.

* * *

 **...**

 **Fourth Update Title:**

 ** _"Saitama" and his Birthday Wish_**

 **...**

* * *

It was late afternoon when he went out for some ice cream. Normally, the B-Class hero wouldn't just buy ice cream just to buy ice cream… Unless, of course, the ice cream was either free or was a big bucket of great value.

But that day was different.

Different how?

It was his birthday.

And yeah, birthday or no birthday, he also wouldn't usually be treating himself to anything that wasn't free or on sale.. He had no clue what he was thinking, but for once, he did not care.

Was he going crazy?

...

And sure enough, when it actually came time to buying the something sweet and melty goodness at an ice cream store, he froze. Several different ice cream choices were right there, in front of him, ready to be scooped up by the ice cream scooper upper worker, yet Saitama hesitated a long while.

Buying a scoop of ice cream was just too dang expensive! Like jeez. He could get a good size box of ice cream with maybe twenty scoops in it for only twice the price as the darn single scoop on one cone.

So.

Having made up his mind, the hero who people call "Caped Baldy" was out in the streets again a minute later. It wasn't long before the man bumped into two kids, probably 10-year-olds, who were handing out one free muffins to passerbys.

He stared at them.

They stared back for a moment before one of them lifted a cupcake up to him.

He accepted it.

And a second later, another was offered to him.

Saitama raised an eyebrow.

"Happy birthday," the two simultaneously greeted him.

He blinked. "Thanks..." Waving goodbye as they walked away, Saitama turned and nearly bumped into a blank faced and stiff Genos.

Well. No, duh. Seemed like there was no other way for this Genos guy to be. He was pretty much ninety-nine percent machine after all.

They stared at one another, Saitama's face equally as blank expressioned as he gulped whole one of the muffins. The second the bald headed dude looked down, the superhero - who was actually in his plain civilian clothes at the moment - watched as Genos pulled out a little, glittering black unicorn shaped candle with rainbow colored horn, rainbow hair, and rainbow horseshoes from his pant pocket and plonked it right on the remaining cupcake in Saitama's hand. To any normal person, the silver and golden wick of the candle seemed to have lit itself up. But Saitama's quick eyes saw Genos using one of his robot fingers to light up the candle like a lighter with lightning speed.

"Master," greeted Genos. Genos greeted, "Happy birthday." Bowing, the S-Class hero kindly ordered his master to make a wish. "The lady at the magic store says blowing this candle will make your wish come true."

Saitama was very certain he was giving the cyborg the strongest eye roll with the strongest sigh and the strongest shaking of his head in disappointment at the believings Genos had of a silly little candle having the ability to do such a thing.

He only had one wish. And that was to fight someone who could match him in strength. It's not that he'd given up on that wish- he never ever would.

There was no changing that being his one true wish.

For as long as he lived.

No change of mind.

Until the wish was fulfilled.

Whichever came first.

No, he hadn't given up on that wish. But now, a slightly bigger part of him had been starting to doubt that would ever happen in this lifetime.

Anyway.

The messy haired blond saw none of the eye rolling and headshaking or sighing. That was all in Saitama's head. Master's face was almost as expressionless as always. The only difference was- although masters expressionlesses had a little hint of either boredom or annoyance or bafflement to them, right then, there was a bit more hint of calmness and contentedness to his master's monostare.

Saitama knew it was silly, yet he made his decision- he would humor the younger man just this once.

And the instant he made the decision to do so, some strangely pretty deep feels, out of nowhere, was hitting him like a kind-of-sort of epiphany. The strong feeling spreading throughout his whole body like fast moving smoke spreading and filling up available space. He really must be going crazy.

Saitama thought for a moment, without any ounce of doubt inside of him, that the sparkley unicorn candle would actually grant him his wish.

And it was only for a moment.

The feeling disappeared the second after he blew out the unicorn's flame on his muffin. Because then he was back to feeling... like he did before, what he was supposed to feel. It was the feeling he should be feeling and should have kept on feeling the whole time without change, and yet now that he was feeling it again, the feeling was somehow different this time. Like it was wrong to feel this doubt. The no-doubt-in-his-mind feels earlier, which only affected him for a second, really messed up his original feelings of doubt now.

Why the feeling for? Why did it feel wrong to doubt? It shouldn't have felt wrong to doubt.

Believing blowing out a candle will make your wish come true was silly.

Wasn't it?

Genos gave him a bow. "Whatever your wish was, Master," the self-claimed student of his said, "I hope it comes true much sooner rather than later." Lifting his head, Genos nodded at his so-called master before turning around and going back to finish the job he was sent out to do. Earlier, he had stopped in the middle of a rescue mission when he remembered it was his master's birthday. He wanted to do something for his master, and to Genos, his master always came first.

The heroing job could wait.

And it did.

Even the bad guys Genos was supposed to take out was just waiting on him. When he got back, Genos found the bad guys and the hostages all playing card games. "Took you long enough," the ungrateful hostages spat as the villains gave him the stink eye.

Genos brought up a hand and sent multiple mini fire balls at every playing card, burning them all. "Enough games," he told them.

The hostages resumed running and screaming. From their captors? Yes. From their scary as fuck rescuer? Hell, sh'YEAH. From a fight that was about to happen between The Bad and the Questionable Good guy? From all of the mentioned, they were screaming and running from. But which one of all that was mentioned that they were mainly running and screaming from - maybe their scary as fuck supposed hero - shrug here, shrug there. Who knew? The screaming innocents didn't know.

Shit. Fuck yeah, they did.

The civies and villains ran from the mad crazy S-Classer hero. The late-teens-ish old machine was over doing it, showing off too much of his top class, top ranking superhero abilities. The villains were just a group of simple middle aged men in a chess club for 50-year-olds and older having their mid-life crisises. They were trying to steal the motorcycles of some wannabe gangsters in their late 20s about twice their size who were, deep down, actually broken pushovers who still lived with their parents.

* * *

A few miles away, Saitama was nearly to King's place to play some video games with the man they call the Strongest Man on Earth - a complete lie that was - when a man carrying a box full of manga walked down the sidewalk and stopped in front of him.

"Hello," the goggle-wearing man smiled at him.

Saitama scrunched his inner eyebrows in confusion. "Hey?"

"Remember me," asked Mumen "Chosen" Rider.

And it was as if asking that helped Saitama to remember him. Because Saitama suddenly remembered him. The inner corners of his brows went from scrunched-up one moment to raised-in-recognition the next. Saitama waved, smiling back. "Oh, hey!" His smile slowly turned itself into a slight frown. "Heard rumors about you. What really happened? Where have you been?"

Mumen "Chosen" Rider shook his head. "Long story. Tell you some other time." Lifting the box up for his friend to take, he explained the reason for the box of manga. He told the higher class hero (Mumen was in Class C before he was kidnapped while the bald guy, who was a fellow low classer hero before, was now a B Class) that he actually remembered them being classmates back in middle school and that all those years ago today was Saitama's birthday. "Happy birthday!"

Saitama held the box in one hand as his other rubbed the back of his head, giving his birthday greeter the sheepishiest smile he could give. Which actually still looked dull and forced. "Thanks.."

As a supposedly very guy-ie thing to do Mumen recently picked up on, he lightly punched Saitama in the shoulder as some bro/friends adults were known to do jokingly. "See you," he said. Then jogged away.

Now, Saitama's been punched through walls, smacked and sent flying for miles -Heck, he was literally sent to the moon one time by an alien who claimed to have conquered worlds, traveling galaxies searching for strong opponents to beat. And not once did Saitama felt any pain then. But - So - What the heck was that just now? The light punch barely moved him, but he felt something he hadn't felt in so long. To be more specific, in years, actually. If Saitama were to think back, he was positive the last time he felt anything like that was back before all of his hair fell out. The playful punch didn't hurt and he knew it wasn't intended to hurt, but there was an ignorable very minor sting to it. And that super slight sting still counted as pain to Saitama since he hadn't even felt any form of stinging in a long while.

Saitama took a slow deep breath in, eyes closing as he let the air out. Again. But this time with a bit longer and deeper inhale while dull looking, uninteresting eyes opened on a soft long exhale. He paused. The birthday dude was now lost in- well, not thought. He couldn't be lost in thought if he wasn't thinking of anything. He was lost in thoughtlessness. And that also went for daydreaming so he wasn't lost in lala land either. He was just staring off into space, his look a really far away look.

Before all of a sudden, those eyeballs of his turned into looking all sharp, focused, determined, and giddily excited. Those eyes of his looked like they belonged to a pretty boy supermodel.

What handsome eyes.

Saitama ran after Mumen "Chosen" Rider. Just as suddenly. Without thought. His mind had gone blank after that cool-ish transformation thing he had done with his face that he didn't even realize yet that he went off to chase the man. The 26-year-old hero had yet to know, or understand, why his body decided to go running after him at all in the first place.

Right about until he was a foot away from the guy.

* * *

Mumen turned around in time to a shocked and confused seeming Mr. Caped Baldy raising a fist. And the fist was clearly flying right towards his own face. Mumen was slow to react.

So it came as no surprise that Saitama's fist connected to his cheek.

What did come as a surprise though, to Saitama, was that Mumen... didn't blow up or anything. Mumen was still on his two feet on the ground. Not flying like Saitama would have expected. Mumen's head was still on his shoulders too. As in, still on the right way and not at all twisted a million degrees like Luffy, the pirate elastic man from "One Piece" would often do. Sure, Saitama held back a lot when he realized what his hand was about to do, unable to completely stop himself from punching his birthday greeter in the face anyway. But he still knew for a fact that the power of that held back punch should have still been powerful enough to separate the skin and bones and guts and muscles of even a high powered demon king.

Yet...

Mumen Rider chuckled. "Okay, ow." The fist to his face hurt. The sudden force of his head to one side hurt... A memory of getting beat up by a demon sea king flashed in his mind.. He'd gotten thwacked around real good that time and was rescued by this same man. . With one punch. Saitama one punched a hole through that unbeatable beast who was able to defeat two S Class heroes... Realizing he could have been ground meat right now, Mumen mistook the punch to his face as a friendly bro-thing all just because that punch didn't sent him flying through the air for a decade or two.

And so Mumen punched Saitama back. A fist to his bro-friend's face. Nothing but a friendly payback.

The weak punch only did the same thing Saitama's held back power punch did with Mumen. Saitama's face was forced to the side.

Saitama remembered being punched to the moon didn't hurt at all. He also remembered how the punches by the king of deep, Lord of the Seas didn't even move him.

So what the hell was this?

Pain? From a hit? Real actual pain? For real?

Clearly, Mumen was still just a normal guy with a normal punch. At least, that's how it was to Mumen himself anyway. And to anyone else who was normal out there.

But Saitama wasn't just anyone. And to anyone else who wasn't just anyone, something wasn't normal here. Something was way off and that should be very clear to anyone who else who wasn't just anyone else.

And no, Saitama wasn't that type of anyone-else either. He was something else. Entirely something else. So whatever that was off that should have been clear to him- was not clear to him.

All he knew was that he'd finally found someone who he could spar equally with. Even if the fights didn't result in Earth ending quakes and explosions. Which would have been fine with Saitama if the thought ever occurred to him. Being super strong and always causing destruction everywhere was such a downer. This, whatever this was, was good. He didn't have to hold back, and instead of expecting nothing else on earth would be left from any future fightings, everything would actually still be around. The world would be fine. Even this Mumen guy, the bicyclist hero, License-less Rider.

Saitama didn't get what was going on. But who actually cared about the actuals that was happening? None of this was his problem and this whole thing seemed to, in fact, be a good thing.

Did his birthday wish just come true?

Saitama lightly rubbed the cheek that was in pain. Shaking his head out of the shock of finally getting hurt for the first time in a few years, Saitama whipped his head back toward Mumen.

Only to find the man gone.

Wha-?

* * *

 **DING . D O N G**

It's been two minutes of this doorbelling and no answer. "Maybe he has his headphones on high volume again?" With the featherest of oh-so lightly soft touches, Saitama, with great gentleness, busted open the steel door with seventeen deadbolt locks with a finger on the hand that wasn't holding the box of manga.

True enough. King had on his headphones, the volume on full blast as anime theme songs could be heard playing even from across the living-room. And King was still able to sleep with that kind of loudness booming right in his ears.

Shrugging, Saitama decided not to disturb the slumbering fellow. He could play video games by himself until the gamer champ woke up.

He put the extra headphones on, turned on the game... and that was the last thing he remembered doing before slowly opening his eyes - which he didn't remember closing and this was different from a blink because with blinking, there was a quick automatic opening of the eyes without the feeling of having to force them open. Which, he kind of had to force them open right then - and suddenly finding himself in the game world he was about to play.

Saitama blinked. He jerked his head around this way and that, looking here and there and…

Nope. He wasn't just too focused in the game.

He really was in the game!

How?

Out of the blue, a fireball appeared and was heading straight for him… Before the 2 foot big ball of fire could hit him, and it really would have hit him because he couldn't move for some reason, Saitama felt two big heavy hands grabbing him on either side of his shoulders.

Startled, Saitama jumped. Eyes checking his surroundings, he was back in King's livingroom, the video game and TV turned off, and King now wide awake. The reflection on the turned off TV screen showed King was bent over behind him with the taller guy's hands on his shoulders.

King let go of him and stood up straight. The fake S Class blond's reflection waved at him.

Saitama turned around to face the man. But what he saw was King still fast asleep on the sofa with his headphones still on and the anime music still loudly playing. A confused frown sets on Saitama's expression. Saitama looked back at the TV.

King began his long explanation. "Yes, your consciousness did just jumped into the game world. If you, your consciousness, dies in the game, you die for real. So be careful next time. To move or do anything in the game, you have to think about how in the game controllers you could do those things. What to press to make yourself jump. What to keep on pressing to make yourself move. What combination of buttons you need to be pressing on to make a certain fighting move.. Your mind, while in the game, needs to be multitasking at all times. Staying focused will keep you safer in this game so stay focused, my friend! Right now, it may seem like you're back in my living room, but you're actually still half asleep. That's why you are seeing two of me."

Saitama scratched his bald head as he gave the dude on the TV screen an ugly face. Well, an uglier face than his usual below average ugly looks. "So that whole explanation was pretty much pointless because this is actually all just a dream," he asked. "None of this is real."

"It is real. In the dream world. Our minds are now connected through the game. I'm still fully asleep as you can see my body is still passed out on the couch," said King, pointing to his body. He crossed his arms and continued explaining. "And this is why you are seeing me here in this TV, too. You are half asleep. You were fully asleep and inside the game world. But I helped wake you up to get you out of the game world. You were in trouble and didn't know what to do so I'm telling you what to do now. You should know most of everything first. I'm letting you know now to help you prepare yourself before you can go back to the game."

There was something Saitama was real curious about. So he asked his question. "How long has this-" he gestured all over at everything around him, "dream ability stuff been going on for you?"

"Just earlier this week. An online gamer friend showed me, taught me everything I know now." Dream King cleared his throat. "It's why I had you come over. I decided to wait until it was your birthday to show you this. Like as a birthday gift," grinned King.

"Cool. So how do I get back in the game world?" Shrugging, Saitama started picking at his nose. Since this was still part of the dream world, could he even pull out a bugger? "Or is there something else I need to know?"

King sighed. "I'll just tell you this one last thing before we try out the practice beginners game. You won't die in the real world if your game self in the game world only died in the practice games." The dream King plopped down on to his butt, sitting cross legged on the floor. "Anyway. You're not actually sitting right now. Most likely you're really on your back on the floor, not moving. Your body is still asleep, but your mind is aware of your body's surroundings. Your half asleep mind knows that it's sleeping so that means you're lucid dreaming right now. You think you are sitting upright and seeing me and seeing around you, but you're actually not, no."

With enough practice, Saitama would be able to do all sorts of things in his sleep. He could connect with people from the past or future in the dream world. Time travel was a thing in dream lands. With time was space, and like time-travel, earthling psychics can connect with aliens from far away galaxies in the dream world too and maybe even see what their alien neighbors' worlds were like. He could travel to another dimension. Or go to another reality. Or make himself sleepwalk around Z City so that way he could get the sleep down while still being productive. It would be like he never went to sleep.

But being able to do those stuff would take a lot of time and practice. For psychics, they can do all those things as soon as they're asleep or day dreaming, and for as long as they feel like it.

Psychics need to take care of themselves and not go into some kind of forced coma. They still need to eat and drink too.

The problem with psychic introverts who are extreme dreaming addicts that never go out, they make themselves sleepwalk to eat, drink, go to the bathroom, and sleepwalk to get groceries when they absolutely have to- tsh -instead of just waking up for all of that. As for how those extremists earned their money for bills and grocery, they gamble in the dream world.

And gambling in the dream world was way more fun.

For non psychics, like Saitama and King, the only way they could be part of that dream world and learn to do cool dream world abilities was an invitation by a psychic dreamer.

Not all psychics knew about lucid dreaming though.

There were many types of psychic dreamers and King's friend was a gamer who invited him. Upon the invitation, King asked if Saitama could be invited too. Now King and Saitama can only go to the game worlds of the games King's friend has been in and invites them to. For every level of the game King and Saitama beat, another extra five minutes of lucid time-and-space-travel dreaming outside of the game world would be added to each day. Since this was Saitama's very first dream and no level was beat yet, every time he goes in the game world, even without beating a level, ten minutes after being in the game for any amount of time was free. Only when he beats level one will Saitama get fifteen minutes of dreaming outside of the game.

When he beats level one, the dreamings would not be per after-game tries anymore. The dreaming would be per day. They could choose to use up their allowance dreamings for the day in one straight dream, or wake up and continue the remaining dream time they have left for later. But the dream times has to be used up in the same day or else dream times will restart the next day and the times they wasted were just that, wasted.

So for now, Saitama could dream for ten minutes every time he goes in the game and doesn't die for as long as he doesn't beat level one.

It would have been easier to just not beat level one and dream for ten minutes at different times throughout the day. But that's only when one has all the time to do so. Saitama was a hero. Saving people used to be a hobby he would do for fun. But now it was his job. A job he still wanted to do in the real world instead of just staying at home reading and watching and gaming all the time.

And plus, King's psychic dream gamer friend would have Saitama unconnected to the dream game world if he didn't take the game seriously and beat level one.

Seeing the reflection King waving at him for his attention, Saitama straightened.

King said, "We'll go back in the game in a little bit. Your dream time is just about up. In fact, I'll wake up too, actually. I'm getting hungry."

And Saitama's free ten minutes of dream was up.

Saitama bolted up from his lying position on the hardwood floor. He whipped his head around and watched as King sat up.

King's stomach growled.

"How long can you outter-game dream for," wondered the birthday man.

The bigger and older guy with a scar running over one eye took off the headphone and turned off the music.

Realizing he must not have heard him, Saitama asked the question again.

"Three hours," King answered. "I'm on level thirty-six right now. It took me four days." He glanced at the alarm clock on top of the TV and added, "I dreamed for an hour and fifty-three minute today. I have over an hour left, but I could save that for later." He shrugged. "Or save it for tomorrow so I'll have over four hours? I'm stuck on level thirty-six so I'm stuck with three allowance hours of dream time."

Saitama nodded. "I see."

King's stared at him with a grave face. But Saitama knew his friend enough to know that that expression did not mean King had bad news to tell. Whenever King had some bad news to say, King's frown was actually a teeny bit bigger while he sweat like an invisible rain cloud was raining on him and only him. King just has a pretty-much perpetual solemn and sedated look. Even when sleeping he has that look. Running a hand through his hair once while not taking his eyes off of his friend, King, in a professional monotone voice, sang. "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, happy birthday. Happy birthday to you."

Saitama stared back with that blank expression of his own. Raising a hand, he gave King a thumbs up before he picked the insides of his ear with the pinky. He wasn't sure which was more awkward- the singing or the silence after that birthday song.

King pulled out a little piece of rolled up paper and handed it to Saitama.

Saitama was about to open it when King told him not to.

"Sniffing the inside of that helps you go to the dream world psychics go to," explained King. "Without it, you'll just be dreaming your normal human dreams."

"What about earlier?"

"Turning on the game I got from my psychic friend works the same way. That piece of paper is the invitation to you from him. When you're not here to play, you have that paper with you at home."

"Thanks." Saitama showed a half grin that still didn't quite reach his dull ugly eyes. He was thankful and happy and excited. It may not have seemed that way because his face didn't transform into the face of a beautiful man.. But for reals. He was.

He thanked Genos for the birthday greeting.

Check.

He thanked Mumen for the box of manga.

Check.

He gave a thumbs up to King for the birthday song and thanked him for the dream game invitation.

Check and check.

Now all that's left on his list was to thank Genos later for the unicorn candle he had him blow.

Maybe this could all just be a coincidence that happened to happen on his birthday and that maybe it had nothing to do with wishing on that unicorn? Because unicorn candle or no unicorn candle, it was still his birthday. Maybe this was all happening because it was his birthday? He never would have found out about the weirdness of Mumen's ability to hurt him if Mumen hadn't come up to him today to greet him a good one. He didn't even know how long Mumen's been back since the guy's disappearance. Mumen disappeared and came back different before Saitama wished and blew out the candle so the candle couldn't have anything to do with that. And King learned about this dream game world from a psychic friend where Saitama could have died for real if he were killed in the game days before Saitama's birthday. When was the last time anything could have killed Saitama?

Too long.

So no, maybe it wasn't the candle. It was most probably a coincidence Genos got him that candle on the same day these two major events were happening. On his birthday.

Just because. Because. It was his birthday.

No wishing on a candle was needed. That was silly.

"Oh, yes. Before I forget-" King cleared his throat. "Your paper invitation and my game are only good when our psychic little friend is alive. So if he dies in the game, he dies for real. So let's try to keep him safe from harms way in the game, shall we? If he gets serious injuries in the game, his real life body suffers and duh, grave injuries kill people. And not just in the game. If he dies in an accident in the real world, the paper and game stops working and we become unconnected to the dream world. He's our only connection. Same thing if he gets murdered in the dream world by anyone. Especially the Knight Mares. Keep him away from Knight Mares."

Saitama nodded. "Got it. Keep him away from nightmares."

"I hope you're getting it. Just to be sure, it's Knight- as in Knight in shining armor, and Mare, as in a she horse. Knight Mares are these black smoke things in the shape of a winged three headed horse with two see-throughy rainbow horns on each heads. They have rainbow hair, rainbow tail, and rainbowy fires for feet."

Saitama froze. These Knight Mares sound pretty similar looking to the unicorn candle he wished on. Minus the wings, extra heads, extra horns, and fire-y feet.

"Sometimes, they transform into centaurs. Their upper human bodies wear knight armor stuff. Female knight warriors. They kill you by making your worse nightmare come true and then increasing that fear intensity by ten times. Your faster and faster heart rate eventually have you die of a heart attack or something," continued King. He made his way to the kitchen and started sharing with Saitama his adventures in the game world these past few days.

Saitama had zoned out and didn't hear the first couple minutes of the story.

* * *

 **...**

 ** _ME AGAIN_**

 **xDxD Thank You for reading.**

 **Please. ^-^ Hope to know what you thought of this chapter I wrote during Camp NaNo.**

 **Next Update: Child Emperor! And Amai Mask!**


End file.
